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http://www.archive.org/details/fromschooltocollOObranrich 


From  School 
to  College 

BY 

JOHN    C.    BRANNER,    PH.   D. 

VICE-PRESIDENT 
LELAND   STANFORD  JUNIOR   UNIVERSITY 


Press  of  Muirson   &,   Wright 
San  Jose,   California 


Preface. 

This  practical  and  inspiring  address  was  given  to 
the  graduating  class  of  the  Washburn  School  June  ig^ 
1903.  In  sending  it  out  now  to  a  larger  audience^  we 
do  so  in  the  belief  that  it  will  be  helpful  to  fnany  a 
perplexed  Freshman  in  teaching  him  to  m,ake  a  wise 
use  of  his  new  freedom, — the  best  use  of  his  new  oppor- 
tunities. 

ARTHUR   WASHBURN, 
JESSICA   WASHBURN, 

San  Jose ^  California. 


291042 


Prom  School  to  College. 

YOUNG  women  and  young  men,  you  have  now 
finished  your  preparatory  studies  at  the  Wash- 
bum  School  and  are  about  to  enter  college.  Your 
teachers  have  given  you  much  wise  counsel,  but 
the  chances  are  that  you  have  been  so  busy  trying 
to  remember  the  genders  and  declensions  of  Latin 
nouns,  the  conjugations  of  verbs,  or  the  processes 
of  proving  that  something  of  no  importance  at  all 
is  equal  to  something  else  of  even  less  importance, 
that  you  have  not  had  time  to  consider  or  even  to 
remember  their  advice  about  things  that  are  really 
vital.  So  perhaps  just  now,  the  first  time  you  have 
had  a  little  breathing  spell  for  years,  you  are  in 
a  mood  to  listen  to  one  who  is  pretty  familiar 
with  the  road  you  must  travel,  and  who  has  helped 
guide  along  it  many  feet  both  willing  and  wayward. 
When  David  Copperfield,  a  very  small  orphan 
with  all  the  serious  problems  of  life  pressing  hard 
upon  him,  turned  up,  foot-sore  and  begrimed,  at 
the  door  of  his  Aunt  Betsy  Trotwood,  that  good 
1 


woman  applied  to  her  oracle  for  advice  as  to  what 
she  should  do  with  him.  And  Mr.  Dick,  instead 
of  going  into  the  boy's  past  or  looking  into  his 
future,  and  without  considering  the  rights,  duties 
and  privileges  of  all  parties  concerned,  simply 
looked  at  what  was  in  front  of  him  and  replied:  **If 
I  was  you  I  should  wash  him.'" 

Certain  questions  that  you  and  your  friends  may 
reasonably  be  assumed  to  ask  to-night,  I  should 
like  to  answer  as  Mr.  Dick  answered  Betsy  Trot- 
wood,  very  briefly,  with  plain  common  sense,  and  I 
should  like  also  to  have  my  answer  bear  chiefly 
upon  your  present  and  your  immediate  future. 

To  my  thinking  there  is  no  more  serious  period 
in  a  young  person's  life  than  that  which  covers  the 
end  of  his  career  as  a  preparatory  student  and  the 
beginning — say  the  first  two  or  three  months — of 
his  career  as  a  college  student.  And  yet  nobody 
seems  to  pay  much  attention  to  this  part  of  your 
lives;  partly  I  suppose  because  in  this  transition 
you  are  **neither  lamb  nor  mutton."  You  are 
just  now  trying  to  meet  the  last  requirements  of 
2 


the  preparatory  school  in  order  to  receive  its 
recommendations,  but  you  are  not  college  students 
save  by  courtesy  of  the  college  committee  on 
entrance  requirements. 

While  in  the  preparatory  school  you  have  been 
under  the  eyes  of  parent  or  guardian,  and  you  have 
not  yet  successfully  got  quite  free  from  the  figura- 
tive apron  strings,  though,  I  have  no  doubt,  you 
have  tugged  at  them  pretty  vigorously  from  time 
to  time. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  so  few  people  take  you 
seriously,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  a  couple  of  years 
ago  Dean  Briggs  of  Harvard  published  a  little 
book  meant  to  help  young  people  standing  where 
you  stand  to-night,  and  it  is  not  a  text  book  either. 
It  is  called  * 'School,  College  and  Character.''  I 
can  heartily  recommend  it  to  you  as  the  best  thing 
of  the  kind  I  know  of.  And  when  you  have  read 
it,  I  hope  you  will  find  it  a  safe  and  useful  book  to 
put  in  the  hands  of  your  parents.  For  between 
you  and  me  the  parents  need  admonition  right 
along  here  quite  as  much  as  do  the  boys  and  girls. 
3 


When  you  go  to  college  you  will  enter  upon  a 
broader  field  of  opportunity  for  good — ^and  for  bad 
too;  you  will  have  much  more  freedom  than  you 
have  ever  had  before;  you  will  have  much  more 
temptation  than  ever  before,  and,  more's  the  pity, 
you  will  have  much  more  opportunity  to  yield  to 
it.  You  will  probably  have  more  money  than 
before,  and  more  ways  of  spending  it,  and  if  you 
do  not  find  ways  enough  to  spend  it,  some  of  your 
new-found  friends  will  help  you  to  discover  them. 

Now  the  all-important  thing  in  this  change  is 
your  new  freedom  and  the  new  conditions  that 
accompany  it;  and  the  question  we  are  all  pro- 
foundly interested  in  is  how  you  are  going  to  use 
it.  I  implore  you  to  remember  that  responsibility 
always  goes  with  all  proper  freedom.  See  to  it 
that  you  use  that  freedom  wisely;  use  it  to  the 
honor  of  the  school  under  whose  recommendations 
you  enter  college;  use  it  to  the  honor  of  your 
parents,  who  watch  your  every  step  with  a  soHcitude 
more  tender  and  more  profound  than  you  can  now 
realize;  and  use  it  so  as  to  command  your  own 
4 


self-respect  both  for  the  time  being  and  hereafter. 

If  it  is  found  when  you  go  to  college,  though, 
that  you  cannot  or  will  not  use  the  freedom  of 
college  life  with  that  self-imposed  restraint  required 
by  a  community  of  high-minded  men  and  women, 
you  will  soon  be  asked  to  take  your  liberty  else- 
where. 

Much  of  the  machinery  of  a  college  works  more 
or  less  automatically.  The  members  of  the  college 
faculty  have  become  so  used  to  seeing  the  process 
of  separation  of  the  sheep  from  the  goats  that  they 
are  perhaps  not  so  much  impressed  by  it  as  they 
ought  to  be.  They  come  to  look  at  it  as  the 
working  of  nature's  laws.  Young  men  and  women 
come:  some  do  their  work  faithfully  and  pass  on  to 
better  things;  others  postpone  and  dawdle  and 
drop  out  and  disappear  from  the  college  world. 
For  my  own  part  I  have  never  lost  and  cannot  and 
would  not  lose  sympathy  with  the  freshman;  and  I 
am  of  the  opinion  that  a  little  advice  and  sympathy 
here  and  there,  especially  just  as  they  are 
beginning  college  life,  would  save  many  of  them 
5 


from  failure  and  mortification.  Whatever  I  have 
to  say  therefore  in  the  way  of  advice  or  suggestion, 
is  said  in  the  hope  that  it  may  here  and  there 
meet  the  needs  of  some  of  you.  I  realize,  how- 
ever, that  no  plan  I  can  devise,  or  that  anybody 
else  can  devise,  would  deliver  you  from  the 
temptations  to  do  wrong  and  to  go  wrong,  to  fool 
away  your  time,  to  play  a  little  too  much.  These 
temptations  you  must  expect,  and  you  must  brace 
yourselves  to  meet  them. 

If  you  have  been  coddled  and  coaxed  thus  far 
toward  your  education,  you  may  as  well  learn  now 
as  to  learn  next  August  or  September  that  the 
coddling  and  coaxing  are  at  an  end.  When  you 
enter  college,  you  will  have  to  do  some  pretty 
hard  work  and  you  will  have  to  do  it  without 
prodding;  and  if  you  do  not,  your  sins,  in  the 
shape  of  the  committee  on  scholarship,  will  find 
you  out  with  painful  promptness. 

But  however  willing  and  anxious  you  may  be  to 
do  the  right  thing,  you  may  not  know  just  how  to 
go  about  it.  You  may  be  taking  up  entirely  new 
6 


subjects,  or  you  may  not  be  used  to  writing  out 
notes  or  to  taking  down  lectures. 

If  you  have  any  doubt  about  how  to  take  hold, 
go  to  your  professor  and  tell  him  your  difficulties 
and  ask  his  advice  and  help.  Be  careful,  though, 
not  to  miss  the  first  and  last  recitations  or  lectures 
of  any  of  your  studies.  If  you  must  miss  some  of 
them,  let  it  be  those  near  the  middle  of  the  course 
rather  than  those  at  either  end.  This  is  a  matter 
of  more  importance  than  you  probably  think;  at 
least  I  find  it  a  mistake  made  by  many  students 
under  the  impression  that  if  they  miss  a  few  recita- 
tions at  first,  they  can  easily  make  them  up  later. 
I  should  not  wonder  to  find  that  half  of  the 
students  dropped  out  of  college  had  their  troubles 
begin  with  the  missing  of  a  few  recitations  or 
lectures  at  the  beginning  or  end  of  the  term. 

The  big  resolution  I  hope  you  will  all  set  out 
with  is  to  do  what  you  know  you  ought  to  do,  and 
to  do  it  promptly,  no  matter  how  disagreeable  it 
may  be.  I  am  sure  the  Washburn  School  has  not 
been  sugar-coating  all  the  pills  you  have  had  to 
7 


swallow  thus  far.  When  you  get  into  college  you 
will  find  much  of  the  work  to  be  done  is  real  work, 
and  it  may  be  distasteful  enough.  But  as  you 
mean  to  be  real  men  and  real  women — people 
who  count  for  something  in  the  world — I  implore 
you  to  stick  to  it;  to  stand  up  to  it. 

And  at  this  point — when  the  question  arises 
whether  you  are  to  win  or  to  quit — you  will  get 
some  light  on  your  own  future  careers.  If  you 
turn  coward  and  run — if  you  quit  just  because  it  is 
hard,  you  can  write  yourself  down  a  **quitter"  for 
the  other  events  of  life. 

I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  when  you  have 
work  to  do  you  should  make  it  as  hard  as  you  can, 
but  I  do  mean  to  say  that  if  you  are  to  get  much 
good  out  of  your  college  course  you  yourselves 
must  do  your  own  work,  and  you  must  not  expect 
your  teachers  or  your  neighbors  or  coaches  or 
ponies  to  do  it  for  you. 

Educational  hash  that  has  been  chopped  up  fine 
and  mixed  with  various  savory  things  to  make  it 
taste  good,  or  predigested  mental  food  of  any  kind, 
8 


is  not  as  healthful  as  plain  meat  and  bread  that 
require  some  chewing  and  develop  good  sound 
teeth,  a  healthy  digestion  and  a  strong  jaw. 

Some  law  of  nature  requires  that  we  work  if  we 
would  be  heahhy  of  mind  and  body.  Most  of 
us  are  kept  humping  ourselves  in  order  to  make  a 
living,  but  if  some  of  you  happen  to  have  been 
bom  of  **rich  but  honest  parents,"  you  will  have 
to  work  hard  to  overcome  the  disadvantages  of 
your  advantages. 

If  any  of  you  find  it  difficult  to  go  to  college 
because  you  have  not  the  necessary  money,  you 
may  find  some  compensation  in  the  reflection  that 
the  students  who  have  to  hustle  and  save  and 
scrimp  and  manage  to  get  through,  are  the  ones 
who  get  most  out  of  their  college  experience,  and 
make  the  most  promptly  successful  and  most 
useful  men  and  women  afterwards. 

Make  use  of  your  opportunities,  then,  as  fully  as 
you  can,  and  try  to  realize  that  they  are  opportuni- 
ties while  they  are  under  your  hand.  If  you  go  to 
Berkeley  do  not  imagine  that  better  things  are  to 
9 


be  had  at  Stanford;  if  you  go  to  Stanford  do  not 
think  you  could  have  done  better  at  Berkeley.  If 
you  attend  a  California  institution  do  not  imagine 
that  you  would  be  better  off  at  an  Eastern  college, 
and  if  you  go  to  an  Eastern  college  do  not  imagine 
that  you  would  have  been  better  off  in  the  West. 
But  wherever  you  are  use  your  opportunities — **act 
the  living  present'' — and  do  not  go  grumbling  and 
growling  and  fault-finding  up  and  down  this  beauti- 
ful and  bountiful  earth. 

Burn  no  midnight  oil;  the  half  past  ten  oil  is  late 
enough.  Try  to  keep  such  hours  for  work  and  play 
and  sleep  as  will  leave  the  bloom  of  youth  and  health 
on  your  cheeks  just  as  long  as  possible. 

I  would  not  have  you  take  alarm  at  this  sort  of 
*raw  head  and  bloody  bones''  picture  I  am  hold- 
ing up  here  to  frighten  you  into  being  good.  I 
only  mean  that  you  should  keep  in  mind  the  seri- 
ous side  of  the  business,  that  is  all.  For  college 
life  is  not  a  night- mare — far  from  it.  It  is  the  joy- 
ous time  of  youth;  the  time  to  play  hard  as  well  as 
to  work  hard;  the  time  to  sing  and  laugh  and  slide 
10 


down  the  bannisters  as  well  as  the  time  to  pray  and 
ponder.  And  it  is  the  time  for  those  warm  friend- 
ships that  will  bless  your  whole  after  life. 

To  this  end  do  not  for  any  reason  cut  yourselves 
off  from  the  life  of  the  student  body.  Mix  up  with 
your  fellow  students,  get  acquainted  with  them;  at- 
tend your  class  meetings  and  the  meetings  of  the 
student  body;  interest  yourselves  in  all  sorts  of  stu- 
dent and  college  activities.  As  the  boys  say  on  the 
ball  ground,  **Get  into  the  game!" 

Some  of  you  will  be  asked  to  join  college  frater- 
nities as  soon  as  you  get  on  the  campus.  I  was  a 
fraternity  man  myself,  when  in  college,  and  I  know 
what  I  am  talking  about  when  I  speak  of  them. 
College  fraternities  are  not  so  good,  that  is,  not 
quite  so  good,  as  some  folks — especially  those  who 
invite  you  to  join  them — will  tell  you,  and  they  are 
not  so  bad  as  some  other  folks  think  them.  I  have 
seen  young  men  rushed  into  a  college  fraternity 
without  their  knowing  what  kind  of  men  they  were 
casting  their  lot  with,  and  I  have  seen  those  same 
young  men  rushed  straight  on  to  the  bow-wows 
11 


without  slacking  their  pace.  On  the  other  hand  I 
have  seen  young  men  of  uncertain  tendencies  braced 
up  and  turned  out  good  students  and  fine  men 
through  the  influence  of  the  manly  associates  they 
found  in  a  college  fraternity.  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  under  proper  conditions  there  is  a  lot  of  good 
to  be  found  in  these  fraternities,  though  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  revolve 
around  them.  Joining  a  fraternity  is  very  like 
getting  married;  whether  it  is  a  good  thing  or  not 
depends  on  how  it  turns  out.  There  is  no 
invariable  rule  covering  all  cases.  It  is  good  if  it 
turns  out  well,  and  it  is  bad  if  it  turns  out  ill.  The 
thing  for  you  to  be  most  careful  about  in  this  con- 
nection is  to  see  that  you  do  not  join  an  organiza- 
tion that  will  not  be  congenial  and  helpful  to  you. 
A  serious  mistake  can  often  be  avoided  by  taking 
time  to  look  over  the  men  and  making  sure  that 
they  are  such  as  you  ought  to  associate  with 
intimately  during  your  college  life.  If  you  find 
them,  or  some  of  them,  men  you  would  not  wish 
to  introduce  to  your  mother  or  sister,  flee  from 
12 


them  as  you  would  from  the  black  death. 

I  do  not  thmk  it  is  possible  for  young  men  to 
go  through  college  without  temptations  to  go 
wrong  in  many  ways.  And  it  is  in  your  associations 
with  other  students  that  you  will  probably  meet 
most  of  these  temptations.  Whether  the  bad  of 
college  life  affects  you  must  depend  on  you  your- 
selves and  on  the  stiffness  of  your  backbones.  But 
though  you  cannot  escape  temptations,  do  not  go 
round  hunting  for  them;  they  will  hunt  you,  and 
soon  or  late  they  will  find  you — more's  the  pity. 
Only  remember  the  prayer  of  all  mankind  to  be 
delivered  from  them — clean.  Have  your  mind 
firmly  made  up  that  during  the  first  month  in 
college  you  will  be  more  watchful,  more  careful 
and  more  scrupulous  about  your  conduct  than  ever 
before,  and  you  will  find  it  easier  to  save  j'ourself 
thereafter. 

For  a  young  man  there  is  no  more  wholesome 
influence  about  a  college  than  the  society  and 
friendship  of  good  women.  If  you  attend  a  co- 
educational institution  treat  the  ladies  in  college, 
13 


not  as  if  they  were  tom-boys  or  some  other  sort  of 
boys,  but  as  ladies  should  be  treated  in  all  civil- 
ized society,  with  politeness,  consideration  and 
respect.  Whether  women  are  better  or  worse  than 
men,  or  whether  they  are  better  or  worse  students 
is  not  the  question;  and  whether  you  want  them  in 
your  college  is  not  going  to  make  any  difference. 
It  is  proper  that  men  should  honor,  respect  and 
protect  women,  and  if  they  do  not,  they  are  lower 
than  the  beasts  of  the  field. 

The  wives  of  members  of  the  faculty  in  most  of 
the  colleges  of  the  country  are  glad  to  meet  and  to 
know  and  to  help  the  freshmen — ^both  men  and 
women — and  their  doors  are  always  open  to  you. 

You  should  be  careful,  though,  not  to  put  your- 
selves in  the  wrong  at  the  outset  by  waiting  for  the 
faculty  ladies  to  call  on  you  or  to  send  you  formal 
invitations.  It  is  quite  impossible  in  an  institution 
where  there  are  more  than  a  thousand  students  for 
the  faculty  ladies  to  keep  up  formal  relations  with 
the  student  body. 

Do  not  beheve  everything  you  are  told — ^by  the 
14 


sophomores.  You  will  hear  some  of  the  most 
remarkable  stories  about  this  and  that  professor. 
You  will  be  told,  for  example,  that  a  certain 
professor  is  in  the  habit  of  flunking  a  fixed 
percentage  of  his  students  in  spite  of  superior 
work  and  excellent  examination  papers;  and  that 
another  one  tosses  up  a  penny  to  determine  whether 
a  student  shall  pass  or  not  pass.  Of  course  young 
folks  are  fond  of  picturesque  language  and 
extravagant  statements,  and  so  long  as  you  regard 
this  sort  of  chaff  as  the  product  of  the  poetic 
license  of  lively  imaginations  no  particular  harm 
will  be  done.  But  do  not  allow  it  to  shake  your 
faith  in  the  common  sense  and  fairness  of  the 
instructing  body  of  your  college. 

Some  folks  would  give  you  the  impression  that 
the  members  of  the  faculty  are  the  natural  bom 
enemies  of  students.  I  tell  you  that  they  are  your 
natural  born  friends.  No  man  would  be  tolerated 
for  one  moment  in  any  self-respecting  college 
faculty  who  passed  or  did  not  pass  a  student 
except  entirely  upon  the  student's  own  merits. 
15 


In  general  do  not  trust  rumors,  but  make  it  a 
rule  to  go  to  headquarters  for  information.  If  it  is 
about  a  matter  connected  with  the  record  of  your 
work  or  credits  go  to  the  registrar;  if  it  relates  to 
the  work  in  a  given  subject,  go  to  the  professor.  If 
you  will  do  this  you  will  save  yourselves  a  vast 
amount  of  unnecessary  worry  and  friction,  and  you 
will  prevent  the  growth  of  those  petty  misappre- 
hensions that  are  often  a  source  of  much  annoyance 
in  college  life. 

In  many  colleges  we  now  have  a  system  by 
which  each  student  has  what  is  called  a  major 
professor,  under  whose  guidance  he  works.  This 
professor  is  to  be  your  advisor  throughout  your 
college  course.  My  advice  to  every  student  is  to 
get  personally  acquainted  with  his  or  her  major 
professor.  This  is  an  important  duty  you  owe 
yourselves,  but  it  is  one  that  students  usually  over- 
look until  about  the  latter  half  of  their  senior  year. 
You  should  not  forget,  though,  that  it  is  easier  for 
you  to  remember  the  face. of  one  professor  than  it 
is  for  one  professor  to  remember  the  faces  of  a 
16 


thousand  students.  For  this  reason  your  professor 
may  not  recognize  you  the  second  or  even  the 
tenth  time  he  meets  you,  but  you  should  not 
regard  his  failure  to  recognize  you  as  indifference 
or  neglect  on  his  part,  but  you  should  go  right  on 
speaking  to  him,  and,  if  necessary,  reintroducing 
yourself. 

Your  duty  is  not  done  when  you  ask  advice  of 
your  professor.  He  can  give  advice,  but  he  can- 
not make  you  follow  it;  that  rests  with  you  alone. 
And  the  members  of  the  faculty  cannot  and  will 
not  go  out  hunting  for  you  with  a  lasso  in  order  to 
drag  you  either  into  their  classes  or  their  offices  or 
their  houses.  It  is  so  generally  understood  in 
most  of  our  colleges  that  you  will  call  on  and  get 
acquainted  with  your  major  professor  that  you  will 
not  even  be  especially  invited  to  do  so.  You  can 
do  just  as  you  please  about  this  matter.  In  case 
you  do  decide  to  cultivate  his  acquaintance,  how- 
ever, you  will  find  a  certain  kind  of  low  comedy 
fellow-student  always  at  hand  who  will  insinuate 
that  you  are  trying  to  **get  a  pulF'  with  your  major 
17 


professor,  and  that  you  are  not  yet  able  to  walk 
alone.  Just  here  be  careful  that  you  do  the  right 
thing.  Certainly  the  professors  are  not  so  feeble- 
minded but  that  they  can  mark  your  examination 
papers  justly  whether  they  are  personally  ac- 
quainted with  you  or  not.  If  you  ask  why  a 
professor  should  wish  to  get  acquainted  with  you  I 
answer  that  the  only  reason  he  has  in  the  world  is 
that  he  may  help  you.  Perhaps  you  do  not  feel 
the  need  of  any  help;  but  there  are  lots  of  ups  and 
downs  in  college  life,  and  a  pretty  long  acquaint- 
ance with  it  convinces  me  that  a  student  has  much 
to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose  by  a  personal 
acquaintance  with  his  professors.  Indeed,  one  of 
the  most  serious  objections  to  the  great  universities 
of  modem  times  with  their  thousands  of  students, 
is  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  professors  and 
students  to  come  in  contact  with  each  other.  This 
can  be  partly  obviated,  at  least,  by  students  meet- 
ing and  knowing  their  major  professors. 

Some  of  you  will  be  called  upon  at  the  outset  to 
choose  a  major  subject — the  one  to  which  you  are 
18 


to  give  the  greater  part  of  your  time  while  in  col- 
lege, and  probably  bearing  on  your  proposed  calling 
in  life.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  upon  this  point  I 
can  advise  you  only  in  very  general  terms.  I  am 
not  as  enthusiastic  a  believer  in  the  elective  or 
major  subject  as  some  teachers,  or  rather  I  do  not 
believe  in  beginning  that  sort  of  specialization  as 
early  as  do  some.  But  I  do  believe  in  it  for  all 
people  sooner  or  later.  The  question  is  when  to 
allow  the  student  his  choice.  Some  of  you  may 
know  your  tastes  and  preferences  perfectly,  but  I 
very  much  doubt  whether  all  of  you  do.  Now  a 
man  can  be  altogether  happy  in  his  work  only  when 
his  work  is  to  his  liking.  In  choosing  a  profession 
or  business,  therefore,  you  must  follow  your  own 
tastes  in  so  far  as  you  know  them.  If  you  know 
your  tastes  you  need  no  advice;  but  if  you  do  not 
know  them  yet,  you  should  choose  a  course  of 
study  that  will  allow  of  your  postponing  for  a  year 
or  two  the  decision  in  regard  to  your  future  calling. 
I  am  often  asked  whether  mining  is  not  a 
promising  field  for  a  young  man;  whether  one  may 
19 


not  expect  to  get  rich  or  to  get  a  big  salary  in  the 
business.  Yes  indeed!  Why,  only  a  few  weeks 
ago  a  great  mining  company  signed  a  contract 
with  a  mining  geologist  in  this  country  by  which 
the  company  agrees  to  pay  him  $100,000  a  year 
for  ten  years.  One  of  my  students  who  probably 
did  not  have  a  single  dollar  to  his  name  when  he 
graduated,  seven  years  afterwards  was  worth  in  the 
neighborhood  of  half  a  million  dollars  and  was 
partner  in  one  of  the  most  important  mining  firms 
in  London.  But  be  not  deceived.  The  men  who 
receive  these  large  salaries  not  only  earn  them,  but 
they  earn  a  great  deal  more.  If  they  did  not,  they 
could  not  be  employed  upon  such  salaries. 

Do  you  imagine  for  one  moment  that  these  men 
when  they  were  in  college  squirmed  out  of  their 
mathematics  because  mathematics  was  hard?  No. 
Did  they  stop  studying  as  soon  as  they  received 
their  diplomas?     Indeed  no. 

There  is  no  road  along  which  one  can  coast  all 
the  way  through  life,  or  if.  there  is  such  a  road,  I 
would  warn  you  against  traveling  it.  The  road  of 
20 


least  moral  resistance  leads  to  the  penitentiary;  the 
road  of  least  mental  resistance  leads  to  the  land  of 
woolly-mindedness. 

If  any  of  you  are  looking  for  success  without 
earning  it,  for  food  and  shelter  without  paying  for 
it,  for  the  palm  of  victory  without  the  exertion  of 
winning  it,  let  me  commend  to  you  Drummond's 
chapter  on  parasitism. 

In  regard  to  your  education  in  its  broadest  sense, 
keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  while  it  is  the  end  of 
the  race  that  counts,  the  successful  end  is  made 
possible  from  the  beginning.  If  you  do  faithful 
work  day  by  day,  if  you  meet  duties  and  use 
opportunities  as  they  arise,  you  need  not  worry  over 
much  about  whether  your  work  is  irksome  or 
whether  it  seems  small  and  unimportant.  See  only 
that  you  do  what  will  enable  you  to  win  in  the  end, 
and  that  you  are  guided  by  right  principles. 

Above  all  things  see  that  your  college  education 
itself  does  not  educate  you  away  from  some  of  the 
main  things  in  life — away  from  humanity — away 
from  sympathy  with  your  neighbor,  whether  he  be 
rich  and  powerful  or  poor  and  humble. 

21 


v»m  ^(hu\ 


U  €tf\Up 


II 


BY 

JOHN  C.  BRANNER,  PH-  D. 


From  School 
to  College 

II 

BY 

JOHN  C.  BRANNER,  Ph.  D. 

VICE.PRESfOENT 
LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR  UNIVERSITY 


Stanford  University 
Press 


PREFACE 

A  desire  to  share  our  good  things  with  our 
friends  and  to  preserve  for  coining  classes  some 
clear  cut^  wholesome  advice^  has  culminated  in 
issuing  the  following  address^  which  was  given 
by  Dr.  Branner  at  the  Marker-Hughes'  School 
to  the  class  of  1905. 

CATHERINE  HARKER, 
ELIZABETH  G.  HUGHES, 

Palo  Alto,  California, 


From  School  to  College 

II 

When  I  asked  a  young  lady  who  used  to  at- 
tend this  school  what  I  should  say  to  you  to-day, 
I  received  this  reply  :  **  Don't  give  them  advice, 
and  don't  talk  long."  Talk  long  I  shall  not ; 
but  how  can  you  expect  a  college  professor,  and 
especially  one  of  my  age,  to  let  slip  such  an  op- 
portunity to  unburden  his  mind  of  some  of  its 
accumulations  ?  You  must  not  ask  it ;  it  would 
be  flying  in  the  face  of  nature.  This  is  indeed 
the  period  of  addresses  by  college  professors. 
We  cannot  be  expected  to  say  anything  new, 
for  this  sort  of  thing  has  been  going  on  for  a 
long,  long  time.  But,  though  you  must  get 
dreadfully  tired  of  being  preached  at,  this  is  the 
last  chance  the  preparatory  school  will  have  at 
you,  and  very  likely  you  will  not  hear  anything 
more  of  the  kind  until  you  come  up  to  the  uni- 
I 


versity,  where  I  may  have  an  opportunity  to  give 
you  this  same  advice  all  over  again. 

When  you  get  through  with  your  university 
work  much  kind  and  useful  counsel  will  be  given 
you  about  life  in  the  big  world  beyond,  but  I 
shall  have  done  you  a  greater  service  if  I  can 
persuade  you  to  properly  appreciate  and  use 
your  time  and  opportunities  while  you  are  in  col- 
lege. 

I  am  not  used  to  giving  advice  to  young  ladies, 
though  ;  I  never  felt  that  they  needed  it,  and  I 
am  still  convinced  that  they  do  not  need  it 
nearly  as  much  as  do  the  young  men.  But  after 
all,  about  the  only  thing  the  old  people  have  that 
is  worth  having  is  the  knowledge  gained  from 
their  own  experience  and  from  the  experience  of 
others.  This  knowledge  is  the  concentration,  as 
it  were,  of  all  we  know  —  the  savings  of  a  life- 
time. And  these  savings  can  be  passed  on  to  you 
only  as  counsel  in  one  shape  or  another.  In 
what  I  say  I  shall  bear  in  mind  this  observation 
made  by  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  *  a  long  time 

*  Confessions,  p.  509. 
2 


ago  :  that  *  ^  the  duty  of  the  most  pure  friendship 
.  does  not  always  consist  in  being  agree- 
able, but  in  advising  for  the  best. ' ' 

Hitherto  parents  and  guardians  have  kept  an 
eye  on  you  to  see  that  you  walked  uprightly  and 
behaved  yourselves  becomingly.  Now  the  apron 
strings  are  to  be  broken,  or  very  tightly  stretched. 
You  go  to  the  university  to  measure  yourselves 
with  men  and  women  from  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, and  to  meet  temptations  from  which  you 
have  hitherto  been  shielded. 

Advice  is  apt  to  vary,  too,  according  to  the 
person  who  gives  it.  If  you  have  had  any  time 
for  reading  in  the  midst  of  your  Latin  and  Greek 
and  French  and  German  and  English  and  mathe- 
matics and  history  and  physiology  and  botany 
and  zoology  and  music  and  a  few  other  studies, 
you  have  probably  read  the  Letters  of  a  Self-made 
Merchant  to  His  Son.  You  will  remember  that  in 
the  first  letter  the  father  writes  to  his  son  who 
has  just  gone  away  to  college,  he  says  :  **  Dear 
Pierrepont :  Your  Ma  got  safe  back  this  morn- 
ing and  she  wants  me  to  be  sure  to  tell  you  not 
3 


to  overstudy,  and  I  want  to  tell  you  to  be  sure 
not  to  understudy.'*  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
Pierrepont  took  the  advice  of  both  his  parents. 
Some  students  are  disposed  to  study  too  much, 
to  the  great  detriment  of  health  of  body  and 
mind;  while  others  are  disposed  to  study  too 
little,  also  to  the  detriment  of  body  and  mind 
and  morals. 

It  is  the  universal  testimony  of  the  professors 
in  all  co-educational  institutions  that  the  women 
are  more  conscientious  in  their  work  than  the 
men,  and  that  they  are  therefore  much  more  lia- 
ble to  overwork.  The  first  piece  of  advice  I  have 
to  offer  you,  therefore,  is  that  you  do  not  over- 
work. Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  that  sort  of 
thing.  I  suppose  you  will,  like  so  many  young 
people,  feel  that  you  must  get  through  with  your 
studies,  and  get  out  in  the  busy  world.  But  if 
you  get  through  with  nerves  shattered,  and  health 
gone  beyond  remedy,  you  will  have  paid  more 
than  it  is  worth  for  your  education. 

The  second  bit  of  advice  is  like  unto  the  first, 
and  that  is  to  take  good  care  of  your  health.    You 
4 


can  pay  too  dearly  for  education  quite  as  cer- 
tainly as  you  can  pay  too  dearly  for  a  piece  of 
cloth. 

And  pray  do  not  proceed  on  the  theory  that 
your  health  is  a  matter  that  concerns  you  alone. 
It  not  only  concerns  your  relatives  and  friends 
through  their  affections  for  you,  but  soon  or  late, 
unless  you  take  proper  care  of  your  health,  you 
will  become  a  burden  to  them  instead  of  a  help. 

I  have  said  that  I  find  young  men  more  in  need 
of  advice  than  young  women,  but  in  matters  of 
this  kind  I  believe  the  women  are  more  reckless 
than  the  men.  In  our  quadrangle  is  a  place 
where,  when  the  weather  is  not  bad,  a  good 
many  people  take  a  short  cut  across  the  corners 
on  the  bare  ground.  On  several  occasions  when 
it  was  not  raining,  but  when  the  ground  was 
muddy,  I  have  seen  the  students  passing  this 
place  in  groups,  and  I  have  been  impressed  by 
the  fact  that  most  of  the  young  men,  with  the 
soles  of  their  shoes  fully  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
thick,  walk  the  slightly  longer  distance  under  the 
arcades,  while  the  young  ladies,  with  dragging 
5 


skirts,  without  overshoes,  and  with  shoe  soles  as 
thin  as  cardboard,  walk  across  the  short  cut 
through  the  mud. 

Bearing  directly  on  this  matter  of  health  I 
would  urge  that  you  impose  a  rational  limit  upon 
your  social  pleasures.  There  is  no  sadder  sight 
than  that  of  young  women  driving  away  youth 
and  health  of  mind  and  heart  by  late  hours,  and 
by  keeping  constantly  on  the  nervous  stretch  and 
strain  in  the  process  known  as  ^  ^  having  a  good 
time.^^  We  cannot  too  severely  condemn  the 
course  of  young  men  who  lead  dissipated  lives  ; 
but  dissipation  does  not  consist  solely  in  exces- 
sive drinking  and  smoking.  There  are  excesses 
of  other  kinds  often  indulged  in  by  young  women 
that  are  quite  as  sure  to  dull  the  moral  senses,  to 
dim  the  sparkle  of  their  eyes,  and  to  make  of  them 
faded  old  women  at  twenty-five. 

Do  not,  I  pray  you,  get  the  impression  that 
the  college  professor  has  no  sympathy  with  the 
pleasures  of  the  young.  As  one  grows  old,  if  his 
heart  is  somewhere  near  the  right  spot,  he  sym- 
pathizes the  more  with  all  the  legitimate  enjoy- 
6 


merits  of  young  people.  By  no  means  would  I 
have  you  do  without  various  kinds  of  play,  but 
see  that  play  does  not  get  the  first  place  in  your 
lives.  Late  hours  at  the  ball,  the  reception,  the 
*  *  spread,  * '  the  chafing-dish  party,  or  other  social 
function,  will  cause  the  roses  of  youth  and  health 
to  fade  from  your  cheeks  just  as  promptly  as  late 
hours  of  study  or  care  or  sickness  ;  and  once  gone 
they  return  no  more. 

On  the  other  hand,  do  not  confine  your  atten- 
tion too  exclusively  to  your  regular  university 
work,  but  mingle  with  your  fellow  students  and 
take  some  part  in  student  activities.  Your  inter- 
ests in  such  affairs  are  really  quite  as  great  as 
those  of  the  men.  Do  not  hold  yourself  aloof 
from  your  classmates,  and  do  not,  above  all,  as- 
sume an  air  of  being  superior  to  matters  that  are 
of  interest  or  concern  to  yourselves,  to  the  stu- 
dent body,  and  to  the  college  community.  Cul- 
tivate respect  for  things  that  should  be  respected, 
and  appreciation  for  the  many  things  that  are 
done  for  your  comfort  and  welfare,  and  do  not 
go  fault-finding  through  this  joyous  period  of 
7 


your  lives.  President  Andrew  D.  White  of  Cor- 
nell University  properly  expresses  it  in  his  auto- 
biography, written  toward  the  close  of  a  life-long 
experience  as  student,  professor,  and  college  pres- 
ident, when  he  says  that  ''the  most  detestable 
product  of  college  life  is  the  sickly  cynic."* 

The  cynic  would  have  us  think  that  he  could 
win  all  the  prizes,  take  all  the  honors,  and  throw 
all  creation  quite  in  the  shade  if  he  only  chose  to 
do  so.  But  he  never  does  any  of  these  things, 
and  he  has  the  air  of  thinking  none  of  them  worth 
the  doing.  Should  any  one  of  you  ever  be 
tempted  to  take  this  detestable  attitude,  or  to 
admire  it  in  others,  please  remember  this  at  least : 
that  one  is  useful  in  this  world  not  according  to 
what  he  is  able  to  do,  but  according  to  what  he 
does. 

In  your  relations  to  university  regulations,  try 
to  live  up  to  the  spirit  of  them.  If  you  find  a  rule 
requiring  you  to  end  a  social  function  at  twelve 
o'clock,  be  sure  that  you  don't  wait  for  the  clock 
to  finish  striking  twelve  before  ending  it.     Bear 

*  Autobiography,  I,  p.  33. 
8 


in  mind  that  when  people  abuse  their  privileges 
they  are  on  the  high  road  to  lose  them  altogether. 

The  good  you  will  get  out  of  your  college  life 
will  come  day  by  day  and  little  by  little.  Integ- 
rity, uprightness,  truthfulness,  unselfishness,  gen- 
tleness, and  a  fine  sense  of  honor  cannot  be  put 
upon  you  like  a  garment ;  these  things  must  grow 
up  within  you  if  they  are  to  be  controlling  factors 
in  your  lives. 

Have  confidence  in  your  teachers.  Turn  a  deaf 
ear  to  carping  criticism  of  them.  Remember  that 
the  most  disagreeable  people  in  this  world  are 
those  who  never  have  a  kind  word  for  their  fellow 
men.  You  are  probably  not  prepared  to  realize 
how  good  an  impression  a  student  makes  upon 
his  elders  by  expressing  confidence  in  his  instruc- 
tors. And  if  you  are  to  get  much  out  of  your 
work  as  you  go  along  you  must  have  confidence 
in  them.  I  do  not  mean  to  beg  the  question, 
however.  Professors  are  human  beings  just  like 
the  rest  of  the  world,  and  are  liable  to  all  the 
weaknesses  of  our  race  ;  but  the  men  under  whom 
you  must  continue  your  work  have  been  looked 
9 


over  by  much  more  critical  persons  than  you 
would  claim  to  be. 

Mr.  Muirhead,  the  author  of  the  British  and 
American  *' Baedekers,"  and  a  man  of  wide  ob- 
servation, makes  this  statement  in  his  * '  America, 
the  Land  of  Contrasts  "  :*  * '  Among  the  most 
searching  tests  of  the  state  of  civilization  reached 
by  any  country  are  the  character  of  its  roads,  its 
minimizing  of  noise,  and  the  position  of  its 
women.''  We  have  to  confess  that  our  roads 
are  pretty  bad,  and  we  are  a  noisy  lot,  but  our 
women,  we  are  proud  to  say,  have  a  position  al- 
together different  from  and  better  than  that  of 
women  in  other  parts  of  the  world  with  which  I 
have  any  acquaintance. 

Having  in  mind  the  condition  of  so  many 
women  in  European  countries,  Mr.  Muirhead  re- 
marks the  absence  in  America  of  * '  the  pathetic 
army  of  ineffective  spinsters  clinging  apologetic- 
ally to  the  skirts  of  gentility. ' '  But  that  Ameri- 
can women  have  a  position  better  than  the  women 

of  other  countries  depends  upon  the  men  and 
__ 

ID 


upon  the  women  themselves.  Our  women  have 
a  large  variety  of  interests,  and  they  seem  to  have 
followed  natural  laws  in  the  development  of  their 
individuality.  I  believe  that  the  freedom  per- 
mitted in  matters  of  education  is  partly  responsi- 
ble for  the  independence  and  individuality  of  the 
women  of  this  country.  Every  honorable  pro- 
fession and  business  is  to-day  open  to  them.  At 
your  doors  is  one  of  the  largest  benefactions  ever 
bestowed  upon  mankind,  and  it  is  chiefly  the 
work  of  an  American  woman. 

Like  so  many  other  women  of  our  time,  some 
of  you  may  be  looking  for  positions  of  one  kind 
or  another  shortly  after  you  get  through  your 
university  work.  You  will  be  more  successful  in 
this  search  if  you  will  keep  certain  matters  in 
view  before  and  after  you  go  to  college.  One  of 
the  main  things  is  for  you  to  devote  yourselves 
to  getting  a  proper  and  thorough  education.  If 
you  will  do  this  you  are  much  more  likely  to  get 
places  and  to  hold  them  with  satisfaction  both  to 
yourselves  and  to  your  employers.  You  have 
much  the  same  interest  then  that  men  have  in 
II 


choosing  your  studies  and  in  deciding  what  you 
will  do.  When  you  come  to  choose  a  major  study 
in  the  university,  endeavor  to  follow  the  natural 
bent  of  your  mind  very  much  as  any  one  else 
should  do.  Geology  is  about  as  far  from  our  old- 
time  ideas  of  what  a  woman  can  do  as  anything 
can  well  be.  But  the  professor  of  geology  at 
Bryn  Mawr  is  a  woman,  and  she  is  not  only  a 
good  geologist,  but  her  standing  is  recognized. by 
the  most  exclusive  geological  organization  in  this 
country.  I  believe  it  is  true  of  every  one  that 
he  can  do  most  successfully  what  his  tastes  natu- 
rally lead  him  to  do,  for  it  is  only  when  one  works 
at  what  he  likes  that  he  works  best.  And  this  is 
just  as  true  of  a  woman  as  it  is  of  a  man. 

We  do  not  hear  as  much  nowadays  as  we  used 
to  of  the  accomplishments  of  women,  but  we 
really  do  think  a  good  deal  about  them.  For  an 
accomplishment  is  merely  excellence  in  some- 
thing, and  the  power  to  do  it  well.  Every  one 
admires  a  person  who  really  knows  or  can  do 
things  well,  and  this  applies  to  the  accomplish- 
ments of  women  as  well  as  to  those  of  men.    It  is 

12 


only  necessary  to  see  that  the  accomplishment  is 
genuine  and  a  part  of  you,  for  only  by  this  pro- 
cess can  you  hope  to  make  of  yourselves  good 
company. 

There  is  one  accomplishment  that  I  would 
especially  commend  to  you  as  becoming  in  an 
American  woman,  and  that  is  the  English  lan- 
guage. Good  English  is  a  vast  deal  more  im- 
portant to  every  one  of  you  than  French  or  Ger- 
man or  any  other  language,  unless  indeed  you 
are  to  live  in  France  or  Germany.  In  this  con- 
nection I  implore  you,  in  the  name  of  all  you  hold 
sacred,  to  make  as  little  use  as  you  possibly  can 
of  slang.  If  you  have  had  the  misfortune  to  grow 
up  in  an  atmosphere  of  slang,  you  have  not  the 
remotest  idea  of  how  it  sounds  from  the  mouth 
of  a  lady.  I  have  been  in  parts  of  the  world 
where  women  smoke,  and  chew  tobacco,  and 
swear,  but  I  assure  you  without  the  slightest  ex- 
aggeration that  none  of  those  habits  are  more 
offensive  than  is  the  use  of  slang  by  young  women. 
And  aside  from  the  looks  or  sound  of  it,  the  ha- 
bitual  use  of  slang  so  demoralizes  one's  language 
13 


that  the  user  of  it  sooner  or  later  loses  the  ability 
to  speak  straightforward  and  effective  English. 

I  make  bold  to  venture  even  on  the  grounds  of 
your  relations  to  the  men  in  the  university,  and 
for  that  matter,  outside  of  it,  too.  Women  have 
to  do  in  this  world  not  alone  with  their  own  con- 
duct, fate  and  fortunes,  but  with  the  conduct,  fate 
and  fortunes  of  men.  You  sometimes  see  it  stated 
that  a  woman  can  drag  a  man  down  to  hell.  Yes, 
I  dare  say  that  bad  women  can  ;  but  good  women 
can  drag  men  into  heaven,  too.  Men  will  accept 
you  at  something  near  your  own  valuation,  and 
your  influence  will  therefore  be  determined  largely 
by  your  self-respect. 

Encourage  in  every  way,  and  at  all  times, 
formal  politeness  and  courtesy  of  men  toward 
women.  If  you  will  let  a  man  open  a  door  for 
you  he  will  think  better  of  you,  and  you  will 
think  better  of  him.  If  you  give  him  no  oppor- 
tunity to  do  such  trivial  things  you  appear  to  go 
on  the  assumption  that  he  is  a  boor,  and  that 
is  not  good,  either  for  you  or  for  him.  Encour- 
age men  to  be  considerate  of  women  in  all  things, 


to  be  chivalrous  in  all  things.  Chivalry  is  no 
mediaeval  custom  to  be  discredited  and  discarded 
by  the  practical,  sensible,  educated  women  of  the 
twentieth  century  :  chivalry  has  its  roots  in  some 
of  the  best  traits  of  human  nature  —  the  protec- 
tion and  honor  due  w^omen  from  men.  No  man 
and  no  woman  has  anything  to  lose  by  it ;  both 
have  much  to  gain  and  profit  by  it.  Encourage 
in  all  men  what  you  would  have  in  the  men  who 
are  nearest  and  dearest  to  you.  If  you  will  be- 
lieve them  honorable,  truthful,  and  considerate, 
they  will  at  least  try  to  be  honorable,  truthful,  and 
considerate. 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  tell  you  all  the  things 
you  should  and  should  not  do,  but  in  addition  to 
the  matters  already  spoken  of,  I  would  have  you 
resolve  : 

That  you  will  cultivate  the  graces  that  belong 
to  women  rather  than  those  that  belong  to  men. 

That  you  will  not  try  to  do  more  than  you  can 
do  well. 

That  you  will  keep  in  close  touch  with  your 
major  professor. 

15 


That  you  will  not  miss  the  first  recitations  or 
lectures  in  any  of  your  studies. 

That  you  will  give  due  (and  not  undue)  atten- 
tion to  your  dress  and  personal  appearance. 

That  you  will  use  the  dictionary  and  atlas  with 
the  greatest  freedom. 

That  you  will  write  legibly  and  speak  distinctly. 

That  when  you  get  to  be  sophomores  you  will 
not  tease  the  freshmen. 

The  things  I  have  been  speaking  of  lie  mostly 
near  the  surface.  In  the  short  time  at  my  dis- 
posal I  cannot  say  much  of  those  deeper  and  more 
important  matters  of  character  and  basal  princi- 
ples, but  these  I  have  no  doubt  have  been  so  im- 
pressed upon  you  that  further  mention  just  now 
is  unnecessary.  I  am  not  forgetting,  and  I  would 
not  have  you  forget,  that  ' '  moral  development, 
spiritual  discipHne,  is  the  most  essential  part  of 
education."*  As  the  foundations  of  our  great 
buildings  lie  buried  deep  out  of  our  sight,  so  be- 
neath every  truly  great  character  lie  foundation 
principles  built  with  infinite  toil  and  pains.    Recol- 

*  Stead,  p.  175. 

16 


lect,  though,  that  this  is  a  convenient  point  in  your 
lives  to  make  good  resolutions,  and  to  set  out 
bravely  to  keep  them.  Your  moral  natures  have 
to  be  looked  after  quite  as  certainly  as  your  knowl- 
edge of  science,  literature  and  art.  And  while  no 
amount  of  piety  will  give  an  uninstructed  man 
an  insight  into  the  truths  of  science,  neither  can 
any  amount  of  scientific  knowledge  make  a  man 
upright. 

As  I  came  down  from  the  city  a  few  days  ago 
I  noticed  again  what  has  so  often  impressed  me 
—  the  oak  trees  near  San  Carlos  all  leaning  up 
the  valley  toward  the  southeast.  And  I  said  to 
myself:  ^'  How  much  better  than  any  formal  ad- 
dress it  would  be  if  those  young  women  could 
read  aright  the  history  of  these  trees.''  You 
have  seen  them,  have  you  not,  how  they  all  lean 
in  the  same  direction?  And  why?  I  have 
heard  it  suggested  that  they  have  been  bent 
over  by  the  violent  storm  winds  of  winter. 
But  such  is  not  the  case,  for  the  hard  winter 
winds  blow  in  just  the  opposite  direction.  The 
fact  is  that  during  the  spring  and  early  summer, 
17 


when  the  young  shoots  are  growing,  gentle  winds 
blow  pretty  constantly  up  the  valley  toward 
the  southeast,  and  these  gentle  winds  keep  the 
young  twigs  bent  in  that  direction  until  they  ma- 
ture and  grow  rigid.  It  is  not  then  the  violence 
of  the  wind  and  storm  that  determines  their  lean- 
ing, but  the  gentler  breezes  that  blow  during  their 
period  of  growth  and  development.  So  it  must 
be  with  you :  the  gentle  winds  that  blow  in  your 
youth  during  your  years  of  mental  and  spiritual 
development  will  determine  which  way  you  must 
lean  all  through  Hfe,  and  which  way  you  will  fall 
in  death. 


1 8 


From  School  to  College 


III 


By  John  C.  Branner,  Ph.  D. 


FROM  SCHOOL  TO 
COLLEGE 

III 


BY 

John  C.  Branner,  Ph.  D. 

Acting  President 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  University 


STANFORD  UNIVERSITY 
/       PRESS 


An  address  to  the  students  of  Stanford  University 
delivered  in  the  Assembly  Hall,  September  6, 1905 


From  School  to  College 

III 

Near  the  beginning  of  the  college  year  it  is  the 
custom  for  our  President  to  welcome  the  entering 
class,  and  to  point  out  to  students  who  have  not 
quite  got  their  bearings  some  of  the  things  they 
^e  expected  to  do  and  some  of  the  things  they 
are  expected  not  to  do — here  and  hereabout. 
In  the  absence  of  our  honored  President  it  be- 
conies  my  duty  to  occupy  a  part  of  this  hour. 
W^hat  I  shall  say,  however,  is  not  addressed  to 
new  students  alone,  but  to  the  older  ones  as 
vdl.  I  shall  not  trouble  you  with  anything 
yery  deep  or  very  long. 

We  have  the  pleasure  of  welcoming  to-day 

g'  e  largest  class  that  has  ever  entered  Stanford 
niversity.  With  apologies  to  our  Texas 
friends,  we  Icnow  that  there  is  not  much  virtue 
in  mere  size,  but  it  is  nevertheless  pleasant  to 


know  that  we  have  more  students  and  better 
students  this  year  than  ever  before  ;  that  we 
have  more  professors  and  better  professors  than 
ever  before ;  that  we  have  more  and  better 
equipment;  and  that  additional  professors  and 
additional  equipment  will  be  provided  for  us  by 
the  trustees  just  as  fast  as  the  income  of  the  uni- 
versity will  permit. 

And  now,  as  it  would  not  be  altogether  re- 
spectful to  speak  to  the  freshmen  before  saying 
a  word  to  the  sophomores,  allow  me  first  to  ad- 
dress a  word  to  the  latter. 

Gentlemen  of  the  sophomore  class,  and  any 
others  of  the  sophomoric  way  of  seeing  things  :  — 
I  beg  to  remind  you  that  if  this  university  stands 
for  any  one  thing  more  than  another  it  is  the 
elective  system.  In  this  connection  I  want  to 
remind  those  of  you  who  appear  to  lack  con- 
fidence in  this  system,  that  if  a  freshman  does 
not  elect  a  bath-tub  out  of  regulation  hours, 
the  bath-tub  must  not  be  thrust  upon  him.  To 
the  sophomores  as  such  that  is  all  I  have  to 
say. 

6 


Ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  entering  class : — 
I  cannot  help  regretting  that  I  could  not  have 
talked  to  you  a  month  ago,  or  at  least  two  weeks 
ago,  before  you  entered  the  university.  You 
are  now  already  launched  ;  fortunately  most  of 
you  are  stepping  off  in  your  new  surroundings 
and  doing  your  new  work  as  you  ought  to  da 
it ;  unfortunately  some  of  you  have  landed  on 
your  heads  instead  of  on  your  feet,  some  of 
you  have  fallen  in  with  the  wrong  set,  some  of 
you  have  already  missed  the  first  two  or  three 
recitations,  and  the  machinery  over  in  the 
Registrar's  office  will  soon  be  over-familiar  with 
your  name  —  for  a  brief  period  only.  But  let  us 
make  the  best  we  can  of  it,  and  let  us  try  to  avoid 
in  the  future  mistakes  that  are  liable  to  be  com- 
mitted at  any  point  along  the  way. 

The  first  suggestion  I  wish  to  make  to  you  in 
your  new  surroundings  is  this  :  see  to  it  that 
your  mind  runs  your  body.  During  the  Span- 
ish-American war  I  stumbled  upon  an  out-of-the- 
way  newspaper  containing  a  letter  written  home 
by  a  country  boy  who  had  enlisted  in  the  navy,  and 


who  was  under  fire  for  the  first  time  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Santiago.  He  naively  stated  that  he  found 
great  difficulty  in  making  his  feet  go  where  his 
head  meant  to  have  them  go.  Now  many  oi  you 
will  have  this  same  kind  of  a  difficulty  here  in  col- 
lege. This  is  not  a  place  where  you  can  hide 
from  temptation.  The  same  old  sins  will  beset 
you  here,  and  the  chances  are  that  many  new 
temptations  will  find  you.  If  you  come  to  col- 
lege disposed  to  let  your  wayward  feet  go  where 
and  when  they  please  they  will  soon  lead  you  oflT 
the  campus  to  stay.  For  this  reason,  and  for 
other  reasons,  I  beg  you  to  have  your  minds 
made  up  that  your  heads  shall  direct  your  feet 
and  your  body  and  your  lives. 

My  second  suggestion  is  very  Uke  unto  the 
first :  that  you  impose  upon  yourselves  the  setf- 
restraint  that  every  Christian  gentleman  and 
gentlewoman  must  exercise. 

Most  of  you  upon  entering  the  university  find 
yourselves  with  more  fi-eedom  than  you  have  ever 
had  before.  Now  it  is  a  fundamental  principle 
of  every  democratic  government  that  with  free- 

8 


dom  goes  responsibility,  and  that  responsibility 
implies  and  necessitates  self-restraint.  With  the 
freedom  allowed  you  in  this  institution  the  re- 
sponsibility of  your  conduct  rests  almost  entirely 
in  your  own  hands.  But  unless  you  exercise 
self-restraint  and  use  your  freedom  wisely,  you 
will  soon  receive  a  cordial  invitation  that  you 
cannot  very  well  decline,  to  go  elsewhere. 

Do  not  get  the  idea,  however,  that  your  path- 
way is  entirely  covered  with  pit-falls  and  stum- 
bling blocks.  You  will  find,  as  most  of  you 
have  already  found,  that  everybody  is  your 
friend  and  wishes  to  help  you  along.  And 
every  one  wants  to  have  confidence  in  you,  and 
will  have  confidence  in  you  just  as  far  as  you 
will  allow  it. 

Seek  good  advice  and  follow  it.  Revise  an 
old  saw  to  run  in  this  fashion  :  '*  Do  as  you  are^ 
told  — by  your  major  professor.'*  I  lay  stress 
on  the  major  professor  for  the  reason  that  we 
major  professors,  especially  in  the  engineering 
courses,  have  seen  students  become  almost  hope- 
lessly entangled  in  their  studies  by  following  the 


advice  of  various  and  several  of  their  student 
friends.  Student  advice  about  which  studies  to 
take  and  which  not  to  take  is  likely  to  lead  to 
your  undoing.  I  do  not  mean  to  question  the 
kind  intentions  of  these  students,  but  it  generally 
happens  that  the  professor  sees  the  end  of  a 
student's  course  from  the  beginning,  while  your 
student  friend  is  commonly  concerned  with  only 
a  part  of  it. 

A  friend  of  mine  once  applied  to  Louis  Agas- 
siz  for  the  privilege  of  being  his  special  student. 
Agassiz  told  him  that  he  would  accept  him  only 
on  the  condition  that  he  should  do  as  he  was 
directed.  Our  system  of  major  professors  pro- 
vides for  each  one  of  you  a  man  to  help  and 
advise  and  guide  you  just  as  Agassiz  guided  his 
students,  and,  for  one,  I  must  confess  that  I  often 
feel  like  saying  to  students,  **I  accept  you  on 
condition  that  you  do  as  you  are  told. '  * 

It  seems  reasonable  to  assume  that  you  have 
come  here  for  the  purpose  of  placing  yourselves 
under  the  instruction  and  guidance  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  of  this  university.     It  is  the 

ID 


duty  and  pleasure  of  your  major  professors  to 
instruct  and  guide  you,  and  you  are  expected 
and  urged  to  go  to  them  with  all  your  troubles. 
In  some  colleges  it  is  the  custom  to  have  a  dean, 
but  here  we  have,  in  practice,  a  large  number  of 
deans.  And  if  it  happens  that  you  do  not  find 
one  exactly  to  your  liking.  Professor  Putnam 
has  kindly  consented  to  act  as  general  advisor 
or  as  a  sort  of  dean  at  large. 

These  professors  are  all  men  in  whom  you  can 
and  ought  to  have  confidence.  Indeed  they 
must  have  your  confidence,  for  you  cannot  hope 
to  make  a  success  of  your  work  here  or  anywhere 
else  unless  you  have  confidence  in  your  instructors. 

Whatever  you  may  make  your  major  subject, 
I  want  to  commend  to  every  one  of  you  the  daily 
use  and  cultivation  of  the  English  language.  To 
that  end  speak  the  best  English  you  can  at  all 
times.  I  would  not  have  you  a  lot  of  affected 
prigs,  but  neither  would  I  have  you  cultivate  the 
conversational  style  of  a  Bowery  tough.  A  few 
days  ago  I  heard  this  conversation  between  a 
professor  and  a  new  student  : 

II 


* '  Have  you  had  Latin  }"     *  *  Yeawp. ' '  ; 

*  *  Have  you  had  any  chemistry  ? '  *  *  *  Nawp.*^* 
Beyond  this  I  cannot  undertake  to  report  the 
young  man^s  replies;  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
they  were  reeking  with  slang,  and  that  he  not 
only  could  not  speak  presentable  English,  but  to 
a  stranger  his  language  was  positively  offensive. 

Just  imagine,  if  you  please,  a  young  man,  able 
and  honest,  and  otherwise  competent,  offering 
his  services  to  a  prospective  employer  in  such 
language. 

Young  men,  an  offensive  habit  of  tongue  is 
very  hard  to  get  rid  of,  and  it  is  quite  as  sure  to 
stand  in  your  way  to  esteem  and  success  as  any 
other  offensive  habit. 

Do  not  spend  much  time  looking  for  the  way 
of  least  resistance.  There  is  no  concealing  the 
fact  that  there  is  a  lot  of  hard  work,  even  of 
drudgery,  in  the  life  of  every  student  who  forms 
the  habit  of  staying  in  the  university.  If  any  of 
you  come  here  with  the  idea  that  the  university 
is  somehow  going  to  enable  you  to  dodge  the 
hard  work  of  life,  you  are  making  a  big  mistake. 

12 


The  university  is  not  here  to  educate  you  above 
your  work,  or  below  your  work,  or  around  your 
work,  but  it  is  here  to  educate  you  squarely  into 
the  midst  of  it,  whatever  and  wherever  it  may 
be.  As  early  as  possible  then  reconcile  your- 
selves to  work  and  to  drudgery,  for  that  is  the 
common  lot  of  all  successful  men  and  women. 
Your  work  must  seem  dull  to  you  at  times,  even 
the  most  interesting  of  it,  and  unless  you  accus- 
tom yourselves  to  standing  up  to  it  and  doing  it 
whether  it  be  agreeable  or  not,  you  cannot  ex- 
pect to  get  through  with  your  college  work  suc- 
cessfully, and  you  certainly  will  not  get  through 
with  the  other  work  of  life  successfully. 

Most  of  the  men  and  women  who  graduate 
here  look  about  as  their  college  lives  draw  to  a 
dose  to  find  employment  out  in  the  big  world 
beyond.  It  is  no  rare  thing  to  see  a  young  man 
at  this  period  of  his  life  casting  about  for  what 
he  is  pleased  to  call  a  **puir*  to  get  a  desirable 
place. 

Let  me  give  you  this  fair  warning  on  that  sub- 
ject :  the  best  help,  the  most  immediate  help 

13 


and  almost  the  only  trustworthy  help  you  can 
get  toward  place  and  position  beyond  your  col- 
lege life  is  good  work  and  a  good  reputation  to 
your  credit  here  in  the  university.  For  the 
reputation  established  by  you  while  in  college 
will  justly  stick  to  you  longer  than  that  made  at 
any  other  period  of  your  lives. 

Respect  the  property  of  the  university.  These 
things,  whether  they  are  fences  or  kitchen  chairs 
or  expensive  compound  microscopes  —  are  all 
yours  for  your  service,  but  they  are  not  yours  to 
break  down,  to  batter  and  bruise  and  destroy. 
They  are  given  to  you  in  trust  for  the  use  of  fu- 
ture students,  and  it  is  expected  that  you  will 
pass  them  along  in  as  good  condition  as  possible. 
When  you  see  things  out  of  place  or  under 
foot,  pick  them  up  and  put  them  where  they  be- 
long and  lend  a  helping  hand  in  taking  care  of 
them. 

Do  not  imagine  for  a  moment  that  we  have  no 
sympathy  with  the  happy-go-lucky  dispositions 
of  young  people.  Indeed  we  probably  have  too 
much  rather  than  too  little ;  but  we  also  think 

14 


that  there  is  plenty  of  fun  to  be  had  in  the  world 
without  breaking  up  the  furniture  to  get  it. 

I  want  to  say  a  word  to  you  in  regard  to 
habits,  especially  in  regard  to  those  that  you 
have  not  yet  acquired.  Habits  are  parts  of  a 
man — parts  of  his  personality — and  help  to  make 
him  strong  or  weak,  attractive  or  otherwise.  If 
the  habits  you  form  do  not  make  you  stronger 
they  make  you  weaker,  and  should  be  guarded 
against  just  as  you  guard  against  any  other  dan- 
gerous disease  of  mind  or  body.  It  therefore 
behooves  you  to  avoid  pernicious  habits  and  to 
cultivate  good  ones.  If  you  haven't  force  of 
character  to  *'keep  training  rules"  your  techni- 
cal education  will  go  for  little. 

If  you  do  not  smoke,  postpone  acquiring  the 
habit  until  you  are  through  college  at  least.  If 
you  already  have  the  habit,  be  open  and  above- 
board  about  it.  I  would  rather  have  a  student 
smoke  two  cigars  at  a  time  than  to  see  him 
thrust  his  cigar  behind  his  back  when  he  meets 
his  father  or  his  major  professor. 

In  connection  with  this  subject  of  habit  I  want 

15 


to  lay  some  stress  upon  the  habit  of  spending 
money  as  practiced  nowadays  in  college.  For- 
tunately for  many  of  you  the  problem  of  ex- 
penses is  already  solved,  and  you  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated ;  but  others  of  you  are  so  unfortunate 
as  to  be  more  fortunate.  You  have  only  to 
write  to  indulgent  parents  for  more  money  to 
pay  for  books,  or  for  fees,  or  for  a  board-bill,  and 
it  comes.  This  money  is  spent  in  some  cases  as 
if  you  were  the  sons  and  daughters  —  not  of  fru- 
gal American  parents,  but  of  nabobs  and  princes. 
And  not  only  is  this  money  poured  out  for  ex- 
travagant dress,  expensive  furniture,  superabun- 
dant livery  rigs,  spreads,  dances,  card-parties 
and  all  the  accompaniments  of  college  high-life, 
but  bills  are  run  up  with  liverymen  and  trades- 
men without  due  regard  to  when  and  how  they 
are  to  be  paid. 

Now  I  wish  to  say  in  connection  with  such  ir- 
regularities, and  for  the  matter  of  that  I  may  say 
in  regard  to  nearly  all  the  irregularities  of  student 
life,  that  I  do  not  believe  in  the  evil  intentions  of 
young  people.     When  such  things  happen,  it  is 

i6 


generally  because  those  who  do  them  are  good- 
natured  and  easy-going.  But  if  those  of  you 
who  are  disposed  to  be  over  free  with  your 
money  will  look  about  you  among  your  fellow 
students,  I  am  confident  that  you  will  see  reasons 
enough  to  reconcile  you  to  leading  a  simpler 
sort  of  life. 

To  the  fraternity  and  sorority  people  generally 
I  beg  to  offer  a  word  of  kindly-meant  advice  in 
this  connection.  Young  ladies  and  young  gen^ 
tlemen,  the  lives  that  many  of  you  are  leading, 
are,  in  my  opinion,  altogether  too  strenuous. 
I  am  putting  it  very  mildly.  Such  devotion  to 
pleasure-seeking  is  not  in  keeping  with  the  spirit 
or  purposes  of  university  education  in  this  coun- 
try, and  it  is  not  good  for  you  either  as  organi* 
zations  or  as  individuals. 

Fraternity  life  has  come  to  be  vastly  more  ex* 
pensive  than  is  either  necessary  or  reasonable, 
aind  this  expensiveness  is  kept  up,  not  by  the 
legitimate  requirements  of  the  organizations,  but 
by  childish  rivalries  in  display.  And  in  some 
instances  while  you  are  here  spending  enough 

X7 


money  to  support  an  ordinary  family,  back  there 
at  home  are  father  and  mother  working  early 
and  late,  saving  and  denying  themselves  in  or- 
der to  pay  for  these  indulgences  of  yours. 

If  you  will  look  at  this  matter  soberly  I  am 
sure  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the  best  there  is 
in  college  fraternity  life  is  friendship  and  fellow- 
ship based  on  personality,  character,  and  ac- 
quirements, and  these  are  neither  expensive  nor 
undemocratic.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  ex- 
travagance is  confined  to  the  fraternities  and  so- 
rorities —  not  by  any  manner  of  means.  If  I 
were  at  all  disposed  to  think  so  I  should  only 
have  to  look  toward  college  athletics  to  be  com- 
pelled to  enlarge  my  views  on  the  subject.  And 
I  would  also  have  it  distinctly  understood  that  I 
do  not  believe,  and  I  do  not  mean  to  imply,  that 
extravagance  is  especially  characteristic  of  stu- 
dent life  in  this  university.  But  I  do  mean  to 
say  that  it  is  the  business  of  our  students  and  of 
our  faculty  to  deal  with  it  in  so  far  as  it  is  prac- 
ticed on  our  own  campus. 

Perhaps  some  of  you  think  that  so  long  as  you 

i8 


are  spending  your  own  money,  these  matters 
are  no  affair  of  ours.  With  that  view  I  cannot 
agree.  I  believe  in  regard  to  your  manner  of 
living  that  whatever  offends  the  self-respect  of 
men  and  women  of  slender  means  is  unwhole- 
some, undemocratic  and  lacking  in  that  gener- 
osity that  belongs  naturally  to  youth.  Aside 
from  the  demoralizing  effects  of  extravagant  liv- 
ing among  students,  habits  of  extravagance  car- 
ried from  college  into  after-life  are  almost  sure  to 
lead  to  defeat.  Modern  business  is  carried  on 
with  a  view  to  economy  of  management,  and 
many  of  our  largest  and  most  remunerative  en- 
terprises are  made  so  only  through  the  practice 
of  the  strictest  economy. 

Young  women  and  young  men,  extravagance 
is  vulgar ;  it  is  bad  form,  bad  policy,  bad  man- 
ners and  bad  morals.  It  is  demoralizing  to  you 
personally,  unjust  to  your  parents,  offensive  to 
your  fellow  students,  and  it  hardens  against  you 
and  against  young  people  generally  the  hearts  of 
men  and  women  who  would  otherwise  be  bene- 
factors of  mankind. 

19 


Of  course  I  know  quite  well  that  you  are  not 
altogether  responsible  for  all  these  things ;  yoi;i 
are  simply  following  the  fashion.  Customs 
spring  up  here  and  there  and  spread  over  the 
country  like  high  collars  or  baggy  trousers. 
When  these  matters  are  as  harmless  as  the  cut 
of  your  clothes  we  shall  not  concern  ourselves 
about  them,  but  when  they  threaten  to  comprot 
mise  or  in  any  way  endanger  the  future  of  the 
young  people  entrusted  to  us,  it  behooves  us  to 
look  at  them  more  seriously. 

In  regard  to  the  fraternity  question  generally^ 
I  venture  to  suggest  to  new  students  that  you 
should  *' view  with  alarm"  any  organization  that 
would  pledge  you  before  you  come  on  the  cai^- 
pus,  or  that  drags  you  out  of  the  train  before 
you  reach  Palo  ^\tq  in  order  to  rush  you  intp 
^  college  fraternity  before  yoi;  hfive  ^  chance  tp 
get  a  gfood  square  look  at  it.  A  fraternity  that 
vfill  not  bear  close  inspection,  or  an  acquaintj^nqe 
pf  six  months,  is  ^  good  one  to  keep  out  of. 

And  if  by  apy  mischance  you  should  find 
yourself  in  a  fraternity  niade  up,  to  any  consider? 

20 


able  extent,  of  slangy,  foul-mouthed  or  foul- 
minded  men  whom  you  would  not  like  to  intro- 
duce to  your  mother  or  your  sister,  your  safest 
course  is  to  sever  your  connection  with  it. 

There  are  many  other  matters  on  which  I 
should  like  to  lay  some  stress,  but  the  time  at 
my  disposal  will  only  allow  me  to  give  them  to 
you  in  a  concentrated  form. 

Do  faithful  work  day  by  day,  and  don't  de- 
pend upon  the  pernicious  habit  of  cramming. 
If  you  are  not  called  upon  to  recite  each  day, 
work  just  as  if  you  were  called  upon,  for  a  day 
of  reckoning  must  come  for  every  one  who 
shirks. 

Write  your  names  and  addresses  in  your 
books  and  note-books,  so  that  in  case  they  get 
lost  they  can  be  returned  to  you  by  the  finder. 

Don't  scatter  waste-paper  or  other  litter  about 
the  quadrangle  or  the  grounds.  If  the  place  is 
to  be  kept  in  order,  men  have  to  be  paid  out  of 
university  funds  to  pick  up  such  litter,  and  there 
is  just  so  much  less  money  for  something  useful. 

Don' t  believe  all  the  rumors  that  float  about ; 

21 


and  when  you  want  information  go  to  headquar- 
ters for  it. 

Write  legibly  and  speak  distinctly ;  if  you 
don't  know  how,  make  haste  to  learn. 

Make  some  use  of  the  good  advice  bestowed 
upon  you  by  your  instructors. 

Cultivate  a  willingness  to  do  without  that 
which  you  cannot  pay  for. 

Never  go  to  a  place  that  requires  you  to  ex- 
plain why  you  were  there. 

Avoid  short  cuts  in  your  education. 

Don't  smoke  in  the  quadrangle. 

Don' t  play  too  much. 

Remember  these  things  :  That  you  can  find  no 
better  company  than  that  of  good  women,  and 
none  worse  than  that  of  bad  ones. 

That  as  a  rule  it  requires  more  backbone  and 
more  pluck  to  do  the  right  thing  than  to  do  the 
wrong  one. 

That  nothing  gets  done  by  the  process  of 
postponement. 

To  the  ladies  especially  I  would  make  these 
suggestions  : 

22 


Inasmuch  as  the  human  body  can  bear  only  a 
limited  amount  of  work  and  excitement,  I  urge 
you  not  to  study  too  much,  and  not  to  lead  too 
strenuous  a  social  life. 

Encourage  our  young  men  to  be  courteous 
and  considerate  of  women. 

When  the  walks  are  wet  wear  overshoes. 

Don't  use  slang. 

Finally,  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  in  so  large 
a  student  body  as  we  now  have  that  there  will 
not  be  some  who  will  disappoint  us.  But  on  the 
whole  I  have  never  seen  anywhere,  either  in  this 
country  or  in  any  other  country,  a  more  manly, 
more  earnest,  more  satisfactory  or  in  any  sense 
a  finer  body  of  students  than  we  have  here. 
And,  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  entering  class, 
in  extending  to  you,  in  the  name  of  the  faculty,  a 
warm  welcome,  I  ask  that  you  do  your  part  in 
keeping  up,  and  if  possible  in  improving,  the  ex- 
isting standards  of  manhood  and  womanhood 
and  scholarship  already  in  existence  here  at 
Stanford  University. 

23 


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